Fernando Damaso, 5 February 2016 — A few days ago the 2nd International With All and For the Good of All Conference was held in Havana, a government activity that, according to its organizers, brought together more than 500 delegates from around 50 nations.

It is convenient to seriously talk about and study Marti, although in this case the title of the Conference is ironic, because it takes place in a country where the commitment to Jose Marti’s “with all and for the good of all” has not been met.

The participants, as expected, with some exceptions, are part of the international fauna who unconditionally support the Cuban regime and make up its associations of solidarity. Analyzing and deepening Jose Marti’s thought is a mask of their true objectives: trying to confront the current process of changes where leftist and populist ideas are suffering a setback.

For many years now, Cuban leaders have realized that Marti, with his universal thinking, appeals to everyong, a kind of “Chinese ointment.” Early on they used the authority of Marti to justify the Moncada attack, and then used and reused him according to the interests of the moment, linking him to Lenin, Ho Chi Minh and other historical characters.

To accomplish this, his ideas have been carefully chosen, eliminating all those that contradicted with the regime, such as the following:

“The country is the happiness of all, the pain of all, the sky of all, and no one person’s fiefdom or chaplaincy.”

“The haters should be declared traitors to the republic. Hatred does not build.”

“All unchecked power exercised over a long time degenerates into a caste system.”

“No masks can be worn in countries with a free press, which blows through the city each morning like an unruly wind, lifting all masks.”

“I think they kill my child every time they deprive a person of their right to think.”

Some characters are already “fixed points” in these activities like, Frei Beto, Atilio Borón, Iganacio Ramonet and others, who know very well what the Cuban authorities like to hear. Acting accordingly, assures them an all-expense paid invitation to future events.

The sad thing is that there are still honest people who, believing they are doing something important for the good of the Cuban people, lend themselves to the game.

Fernando Damaso, 20 January 2016 — After fifteen years of combined misrule by him and his predecessor, it now appears the Venezuelan president — having recently lost a legislative majority in the National Assembly — has come up with a plan to solve all of Venezuelans economic problems in 2016. The plan is to be presented by his party’s deputies, now in the minority, who refer to themselves as “the patriots.”

It is worth asking why this wonderful plan was not presented and executed when Hugo Chavez and his party enjoyed almost absolute power, a time when there was only minor opposition in the National Assembly. Are they now trying to do what they could not do fifteen years ago? Some fools actually believe this!

Chavism along with Castro-ism are mutant economic failures which do not follow any laws of economics, relying instead on volunteerism and improvisation, practices which carry no assurances of success.

Since the Venezuelan president’s current plan relies on these methods, the results can be expected to be minimal, especially given all the commotion and propaganda accusing the opposition beforehand of not being able to implement it.

They will make good use of the profusion of enormous portraits of Bolivar and Chavez, with which they have dementedly used to adorn all of Venezuela, a demonstration of ignorance and fanaticism alien to the noble history of the Venezuelan people.

There were those who demanded respect for election results — whatever they might be — when they were convinced the opposition would lose in a landslide. Now they are trying to undermine the recent outcome through subterfuge, slander, lies and other petty, unethical arguments while taking advantage of the hold they still have over the Supreme Court, which remains blatantly partisan.

It will fool some of the people — the usual bunch — but not most Venezuelans.

A banner of Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chavez is seen at the Venezuelan embassy in Havana March 10, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer

Fernando Damaso, 9 January 2016 — In Venezuela it appears that the “Chavista circus” is coming to the end of its work in some public spaces, in this case in the Legislative Palace where the National Assembly meets, from where some portraits of the “eternal president” — as designated by himself before his death — have been removed, leaving only those of the Liberator Simon Bolivar, uncontaminated and unadulterated by fanatical Chavez propaganda.

This practice of placing yourself under the protective shadow of some independence leader to better sell yourself to the masses, seems to be a tactic conceptualized by the majority of “populist” Latin Americans: their principal victims being Bolivar, Sucre, San Martin, Marti and others.

The Chavistas have extended this practice to their embassies and here, in Havana, on 5th Avenue in the Miramar district, they have imposed on us an enormous photograph of their smiling “eternal president”on the facade of their embassy. Fortunately this bad example has not spread, freeing us from converting this avenue and others into a portrait gallery of different specimens of political fauna, further spoiling the city.

Mr. Venezuelan Ambassador can put a photo of his “eternal president” any place he wants in the building, even in the bathrooms, but should not impose it on every Cuban who travels down that avenue. In addition to a provocation, it is disrespectful, because not all of us commune with the ideas of the man in the portrait, and it is a violation of public adornment laws, which should be taken into account by the appropriate authorities.

Given what is happening in Venezuela now, it is being demonstrated more convincingly every day that the Supreme Court has been an organ subjugated to Chavismo, and has been used and is being used to legitimate its misdeeds. This is happening right now with the absurd contesting of the election results obtained by some deputies, which shows that the court lacks impartiality and, what’s more, credibility.

The same thing is happening with the TV channel TeleSur, which is nothing more than a propaganda channel for Chavismo and Latin American “populism,” lacking seriousness and, even more so, impartiality in its judgments, offering only manipulated news, convenient to its own interests.

Everything that is happening today in Venezuela, should serve as in incentive for many to finally understand the real danger of “populism” and the need to remove it from our continent, if we want to progress, develop ourselves, and march in step with the world, not against it.

Fernando Dámaso, 29 December 2015 — The year 2015 ends, and stagnation seems to have sat squarely on the Cuban authorities. Entrenched in dogma and their absurd demands to the U.S. Government, shielded in the supposed defense of sovereignty and independence, something they forgot when they delivered the country to the Soviets for 32 years, they aren’t moving any political domino tiles, closing the game with the double nine.

The 12th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and the work in the commissions, prior to the sessions of the National Assembly, not for the first time repeated the existence of the same problems presented in similar, previous activities, without the appearance of real solutions that would improve the country’s situation or that of its citizens. The talk is of multiple pretenses in all the sectors of production and services, which now form an habitual part of the content of these meetings, where the deputies unanimously approve all agreements without the least disagreement, giving an irrefutable demonstration of totalitarian unity.

The year 2016 is gloomy, with little hope for important changes, at least while the current historical leadership holds power.

Fernando Damaso, 6 January 2015 — The Chavista hysteria is embarrassing: in addition to being unintelligent it is ridiculous. Those who proclaimed the need to accept and respect the results of the elections, convinced they were going to win, after having lost talk not about the National Assembly, but of the rightists in it. Before, when they were the majority, they could have talked about the leftists in it.

That National Assembly, which until 5 January 2016 was used by the president to do whatever he pleases, and was in reality a simple echo chamber for executive power for the application of its policies, was considered an important body of the system.

Now it turns out, when it is no longer what it was and has been converted into a true democratic legislative body, it no longer serves and is attacked and they are even trying to supplant it with some absurd and anti-constitutional “Assemblies of the Street,” similar to the demented “government of the street” that overthrew Obrador in Mexico some time ago.

The so-called “repentant people” of Venezuela (presumably the Chavistas held a referendum to come to this conclusion) and the also so-called “enraged people” of Cuba, seem like children of the same father.

To accept defeat (with a difference of two million votes) and try to survive in a democracy, for those who prefer the “command and control” of totalitarianism, seems like a an assignment too difficult to pass.

The declarations of the principal personages of Chavismo, starting with the disjointed and mediocre speeches of their indigestible president, seem straight out of the script of some bad play from comic theater.

I don’t think Venezuelans have been wrong to give their votes now to the opposition, but they were wrong before to give them to the Chavistas. In reality, the corrected their previous mistake. In short, a correction of the wise.

Fernando Damaso, 1 January 2016 — The Cuban authorities and their organizations inserted into civil society, have launched a fierce media campaign against the politicians elected by the majority of their citizens to hold public office both in Argentina and in Venezuela: in the first case, the presidency of the country, and in the second a majority in the National Assembly.

Reading and hearing the statements, it seems that the Argentinians and Venezuelans have mistakenly given their votes to criminals, traitors, mercenaries, and other anti-socials, denying those votes to the “good and self-sacrificing Kerchnerists and Chavistas,” the “eternal patriots” of their respective countries.

There is nothing new here, despite all the carrying on by those who cannot lose gracefully. We recall that, contrary to the will of the majority of Puerto Ricans, both the Cuban authorities and their related organizations called for the “independence” of Puerto Rico, although only 4% of the population showed an interest in this while 96% rejected it. Things of primitive fanaticism!

Nor do they cease to express their support for an expansionist Russia, the Syrian dictatorship, the Columbia drug traffickers, and all those who speak ill of the West or act against it.

Now they ask for support for Chavism in Venezuela, talking about external interference, while President Maduro invents new tricks to remain in power. It seems that the seven million votes achieved by the opposition came from outside the country, and were not deposited in the ballot boxes by Venezuelans.

There is also talk of a strange union between the Chavistas and the civic-military forces to confront the new National Assembly. “Something is rotten in Denmark,” as Hamlet would say.

Nor is the Argentinean president immune to the populist-leftist onslaught.

Always from the side of the anti-democrats, totalitarians, populists, demagogues, and the extreme left, despite “the many blows life has handed them.”

Fernando Damaso, 18 December 2015 — Cuban authorities as well as organizations that make up the so-called official civil society have unleashed a ferocious campaign against politicians elected to public office by a majority of their citizens. In Argentina it was a presidential election while in Venezuela the opposition won a wide majority in the National Assembly.

Hearing and reading their statements, one would think that Argentinians and Venezuelans, lacking political maturity, had mistakenly cast their ballots for criminals, outsiders, mercenaries, traitors and other anti-social types instead of for the good, noble and selfless kirchernerista and chavista candidates, the “eternal patriots” of their respective countries.

Such out of control hysteria is nothing new given the outcry from the losers. Remember that, despite the expressed will of a majority of Puerto Ricans, both the Cuban authorities and their affiliated organizations continued to clamor for Puerto Rican independence, something for which only 4% of the population voted and which 96% rejected.

There is similar support for the FARC narco-guerillas, who are now in negotiations with the legitimate government of Colombia, which was duly elected by a majority of its citizens. Unfortunately, there are many other similar examples in all parts of the world. Illustrations of a primitive fanaticism!

Always on the side of those who reject democracy, of totalitarians, of populists and the extreme left in spite of “the many blows which life has dealt.”

Original Blog in Spanish

FERNANDO DÁMASO

I was born in 1938 in Havana. I'm a Sagittarius. I studied at the Escolapios de la Víbora and graduated as a Qualified Accountant. I worked in advertising (market researcher and producer of commercials and television programs) and also was in the military. I am interested in literature, film, professional sports and nature. I have been writing for years.
mermeladacuba@gmail.com